Graffiti bill fails in Utah Senate; hackers warn they are still watching

SALT LAKE CITY — A group calling itself Anonymous says it has all kinds of information from the Salt Lake City Police Department's website www.slpd.com. But someone claiming to be responsible says the public has nothing to fear.

In a private chat room, the hacker who identifies as Kahuna explains why he stole thousands of documents from the police website. There’s no way of knowing if the person was behind the hack, but Salt Lake police say he is likely linked somehow to the group that got into their website.

"Somehow, they are affiliated, they are in the know," Police Sgt. Shawn Josephson said. "As far as what their involvement is, we're not sure at this point, but we are definitely keeping those details in mind."

The proof Kahuna provided during the chat were files that were stolen from the website, one of which was an unpublished complaint submitted by a citizen.

“Daily we watch cops beat people, arrest them without cause, and this is a message that we are watching and that we see this as unlawful," he wrote.

Kahuna is referring to SB107. Bill sponsor state Sen. Karen Mayen, D-West Valley City, says the law would have made possession of graffiti tools, such as cans of spray paint and markers, a class C misdemeanor.

“This legislation based on the ‘intent’ to commit a crime just furthers the government control over the citizens of this country,” Kahuna wrote. “It is one step further toward a full police state.”

The Utah Senate killed the bill, on an 11-17 vote Thursday. Mayne said she sponsored the bill to give law enforcement more tools to deal with a vexing problem for communities. But some senators said the measure would punish people for their intent instead of their actions. The bill died on a 11-17 vote.

But the hacker said the while the bill may not be an issue anymore "we still want to bring awareness to their unsecure data that they should fix."

When asked just how many documents he was able to steal from the site, Kahuna wrote:

• 643 narcotic operation related documents

• 2,042 job application documents

• 77 police contact requests

• 228 traffic-related documents

• Numerous documents containing subscription information.